How to launch a stylish independent online store
Whether you run a little retail shop and wish to add an online store (or wish to sell your own products online), an online store is a little helper for indie owners to thrive in a sea of chain stores. You can also use it to offer incentives like loyalty and local discounts, or reward points.
Use with green hosting.
Ensure items sold (and information) is safe
Always do your homework on safety first. For example:
- For plants, read up on pet-friendly gardens (includes tips on safe collars). If displaying plants in your real shop, learn how to stop bird strike.
- Avoid selling wildlife items unless an expert. Most netting has holes way too large and bird houses (plain untreated wood, never bright colours or tin) need expert tips by species for siting and maintenance.
- Don’t sell essential oils to pregnant/nursing women or babies/pets.
- Never sell secondhand baby mattresses or car seats (read up on safety info for baby/children’s clothing and bedding).
- Don’t sell pet-lethal xylitol dental care (or gum) lethal to pets if littered.
- Read up on food safety for people and pets.
- Recommend a microfiber filter for synthetic clothing.
It’s better to simply carefully go through everything you sell. And then carefully curate the items you are going to sell, and give detailed information on each. Go for quality over quantity, so the items in your online shop are trusted.
If you sell digital services, SendOwl is a simpler alternative.
What to include on product pages
After an introductory paragraph, ensure your product description is all on one page (people don’t like having to click different buttons to find out where it was made, what the ingredients are etc). Include:
- The product title, description and price
- One or two quality photographs
- Options (sizes, colours etc)
- Shipping, returns and refunds
- Optional reviews
- An ‘add to cart’ button
- Tax/custom info for overseas orders
Send items in sustainable packaging
No online shopper these days wants a bulk load of plastic. Use plastic-free packing tape and plastic-free packaging for fragile items like Flexihex.
WooCommerce (free WordPress plugin)
WooCommerce is a free ecommerce plugin to add to your WordPress website.
Ensure your theme is compatible. Code + Coconut makes lovely affordable Genesis themes that fit the bill.
Shopify (hosted eCommerce)
Shopify is a hosted platform. Just add a theme and products, configure payments and shipping, and you’re good to go.
Design Pixie offers lovely Shopify themes, at affordable prices. All have clean navigation and strong typography, are fast to load and sure to inspire.
You can also buy matching graphics like logos, thank-you cards and email marketing and social media templates.
If you’re not very techy, for around £30, the designer will set up your site to look like the demo. So you can just get busy loading your zero waste goodies to sell at your new online shop!
